


Not exactly how an agent's supposed to behave

by NoLifeAtAll



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, F/F, It'll take a little bit for the main pairing to appear, kinda slow burn?, slight angst in a way later on, very gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-04-21 02:59:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14275464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoLifeAtAll/pseuds/NoLifeAtAll
Summary: Colene and her childhood friend are employed as agents 5 and 6 when the great zapfish goes missing again. The two adventure through Octo canyon freeing the zapfish. All's going well until she ends up injured in a fight against a octoling. When she awakes she finds herself in a strange place. She's left to deal with the truth of octarian society and an octoling with conflicting feelings to their role.





	1. Employment

The news of the great zapfish’s disappearance doesn’t really come as a surprise. It’s become a regular occurrence every few years or so. Some say that it’s been squidnapped while others shrug it off and say that it has ‘somewhere else to be’. Colene finds them amusing. Her friend, Ethan, took them slightly more seriously.

“I’m telling you, it’s slightly suspicious that it goes missing so many times and there’s always been a strange event or sighting around that time,” Ethan rambled.

“Oh yeah?” Colene muttered idly, tugging on a tentacle that was longer than the others and hung down the side of her face. “Such as what?”

She didn’t really care too much but if had learnt anything from growing up with him, there was no stopping Ethan when he got started. The topic would only change when he finished with it.

“The first time there was that strange UFO sighting, right? ” Ethan explained. Colene simply nodded idly. “Then, a couple years later Callie went missing! It’s-“

“Suspicious? Yeah, I know, you’ve said around a hundred times,” Colene interrupted. “Ever think that maybe the ‘UFO’ was just there coincidentally? And maybe Callie just went on a sudden vacation or something without telling anyone?”

Ethan shot her a withering look, annoyed at being interrupted. “Yeah, possibly, but there’s a possible link there,” he sighed.

“I’ll give you that, yeah,” She muttered. “There’s no real way to prove it though.” She paused and glanced at the time. “Looks like the maps are due to change soon. Wanna do some turf wars?”

She received no answer and looked up to see if she could coax an answer out of him via staring. He seemed distracted by something, however, as he stared past her in the direction of grizzco. “No? You wanna do some salmon run instead? It’s not due to open til this evening so we’ll just have to-“

“Colene, shhh,” Ethan hissed. “Look other there, on the sewer near grizzco.”

She raised a single eyebrow incredulously but decided to humour him. Slowly she turned around to see what he did-

-And jumped slightly at the sight of what looked like Marie from the squid sisters looking directly at them.

“Is that who I think it is?” Colene asked in disbelief. She looked around at the other inklings in the square that didn’t seem to notice the former idol standing there. “And why is she looking at us?”

“She is?” Ethan squeaked. She smirked at him slyly, remembering he was a huge fan of the Squid Sisters.

“Look, she’s staring in our direction and not in any other,” she pointed out. “Wanna go say hi? We can get that elusive autograph you wanted for so long.”

Ethan blushed faintly, his cheeks going slightly orange. “I, uh…” he stuttered, losing his normal confidence.

Colene sighed in exasperation. She stood up and dragged Ethan out of his seat. “Come on, Eth! I’ll come with you, hell, I’ll even ask for you!” She laughed, walking towards Marie. Her friend spluttered out small protests that didn’t have much weight to them. “Think of what the others will say!”

At that, Ethan went quiet. He had always been slightly egotistical, adoring praise thrown his way, but it was never unbearable and he never went too far with it.

As the two inklings approached, however, Marie dropped down through the grated entrance to the sewer.

They paused and looked at it in astonishment. “Uh, do we follow her down there?” Ethan asked sheepishly.

Colene’s face slowly broke out into a grin and turned to face Ethan. He began to shake his head. “Come on, Eth! Where’s the harm in it? Worst thing that’ll happen is there’s nothing there!”

Much like there was no way to stop Ethan when he was talking about something, there was no stopping her when she made a decision and she was somewhat decent at convincing others – especially Ethan – to go along with it.

Without waiting for an answer, Colene turned into a bright blue squid and dived through the grate

\- Page Break - 

The pipes weren’t awfully big and Colene found herself that inklings had no bones. As expected, Ethan had followed her shortly after she had gone through. Now it was just a matter of squeezing themselves through these pipes and find where Marie is. Ethan was muttering unhappily behind her, unintelligible in squid form though the point got across.

This was an awful idea, Colene. Why’d you have to make me do this?  
Colene perked up slightly at the sight of a small gap of light ahead of them. They were almost there! She swam a little faster and tried to urge Ethan to hurry up. 

She jumped up through the grate eagerly and found herself grateful for the light. She morphed into inkling form, wincing slightly at the sudden increase in light. Ethan audibly hissed slightly at the sudden light.

Once her eyes had adjusted, Colene looked around to see where they were. She could see a city – presumably Inkopolis – faintly on the horizon. “Oh carp,” she muttered. “We’ve gone further than I thought, Eth.”

Ethan stood speechless beside her, looking slightly speechless. “Where-“

“Ahem.”

They whirled around quickly and stared wide eyed at Marie.

“Hey,” she greeted casually. “Good to see you made it. I was unsure whether you’d follow a former idol through a sewer to who knows where.” Beside her, Ethan stifled a laugh.

“You’ve probably noticed that the Great Zapfish has gone missing,” Marie continued coolly.

“For like the third time,” Colene muttered under her breath.  
Marie smirked slightly, obviously hearing her. “Yes, it would seem the octarians are more persistant than we had previously thought,” she explained.

“Octarians?” Ethan asked curiously, looking other at Colene. She shrugged at him, unsure what Marie was talking about.

“They’re constantly stealing our zapfish – including the great zapfish – to power their machines,” Marie continued. “In the great turf war, us inklings beat them and forced them to live underground. Now, they want to come out of underground even if it means pushing us out of Inkopolis.”

Colene and Ethan stayed silent for a moment, digesting the information they had just heard. Then, Ethan broke the silence. “I knew that it was suspicious,” Ethan muttered smugly. Colene groaned.

“Really? You find out that there’s something threatening to push us out of Inkopolis and all you have to say is ‘I told you so’?” She whined.

Marie chuckled slightly before continuing. “We need your help to get the zapfish back as quickly as possible. Agents 3,4 and 8 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon are currently unavailable. They’ve gone with our gramps, Cap’n cuttlefish, on a mission someplace else.”

“Wait a second,” Colene interrupted. “Where are agents 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7?”  
“I can answer parts of that question,” Marie replied calmly. “I am agent 2 and-“

“Heya, I’m back!”

All 3 squids turned around to watch a happy squid with long black and pink tentacles wearing a purple beanie running over.

“-And Callie is agent 1.” Marie finished with a smirk.

“Hey, good to meet you!” Callie chirped excitedly. “Has Marie filled you in on the situation? It’s awful, isn’t it? We have to get the great zapfish back!”

Marie held a hand up to stop her cousin’s excited rambling. Colene opened her mouth to ask something but was stopped by Marie.

“You two will be agents 5 and 6.”

Colene failed to close her mouth in stunned silence for a moment. It was Ethan who spoke first.

“Wait, what? We just found out about this and suddenly you’re asking us to become agents?”

“Yep! Isn’t it great?” Callie said excitedly. “I’m so excited to be working with you guys! I haven’t been on this side of the operation since agent 3!”

“Callie, calm down a little,” Marie chuckled. “You’re probably scaring them to death!”

“Right, sorry,” Callie muttered apologetically.

“As I was saying, you two will be agents 5 and 6 of the New Squidbeak splatoon and help us get the great zapfish back from the octarians.” She turned away from them and walked towards a rough looking cabin. “Come in here for a sec, will ya?”

\- Page break -

The inside of the cabin was just as roughly put together as the outside. It was pretty clear what was added by Marie and what was added by Callie. Marie was searching for something, pulling out and carelessly throwing clothes to the side or holding them up against her or Ethan. Every now and again she’d nod and make a pleased sound, forcing a piece of clothing into their hands. Eventually they were holding a jacket, a headset and some shoes in their arms as they looked at each other questioningly. What was going on?

“That’ll do,” Marie muttered idly, moving to stand next to Callie.

“Those clothes will be your agent outfits!” Callie explained cheerily. “The headset even has a radio built in so we can talk to you while you’re out on missions!”  
Marie, as if remembering something, walked away and opened a box. Colene could make out what looks like a shooter handle. Marie pulled it out and looked it over. “I’m not a weapon expert, so I can’t exactly judge whether it’s in good shape or not very well,” She informed them casually. “But it seems to be in good shape to me. Unfortunately, we only have one heroshot available right now but there are other weapons in here.”

She walked towards them. “Which one of you would like this heroshot?”

“I would,” Ethan told her. “I’m good with a shooter.”

Marie nodded and handed it over. “Good, you’ll need some good aim with that. It’s not quite at the level of the splattershot yet.”

“Yet?” Ethan questioned.

Marie only smiled and turned to Colene. “There are a few weapons in there, hopefully there’s one you’ll be happy to use.”

Colene nodded, slowly walking over to the box and digging around. There was a charger that she wasn’t interested in, a roller and an octobrush.

Bingo.

She pulled out the octobrush with a grin.

“The herobrush?” Marie commented quietly. “I would have gone for the charger myself, but it’s your choice I suppose.”

Colene walked back to stand next to Ethan who had put the outfit on. She sighed and did the same.

“Right, now that we’re all ready here’s how this is gonna work,” Marie began to explain. “With two agents working at once we should be able to cover ground more quickly than just one. The two of you will split up and find the kettles the octarians are hiding the zapfish in and get them back. When enough zapfish are retrieved, a boss kettle will open. You’ll both fight the boss allowing us to proceed further into octo canyon and one step closer to the great zapfish.”

“Marie and I will be helping the both of you through your headsets by giving you advice!” Callie chipped in.

“Do you understand?” Marie asked finally. Colene and Ethan nodded confidently.

“Then let’s get this show on the road. Time to find those zapfish!”


	2. First missions and conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Colene does her first mission and later talks with some friends. Yeah....awful summary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok slight note: All missions are the same as splatoon 2 apart from a few. I'm kinda uncreative so...yeah. I will have an in-story explanation though!

Marie explained a few more things to them before essentially kicking them out of cuttlefish cabin. Colene and Ethan stared into the distance, thinking over what they had been told. Colene took the awkwardly silent moment to look around. The place looked rather rundown with some stuff being repaired seemingly in a flash.

“Marie told me this place is called Tentakeel Outpost!” Callie told her through the headset. “Strange how the octarians haven’t moved to a new part of Octo valley but I suppose it’s slightly easier.”

Colene just nodded idly, noticing a patch of ‘air’ behind a large kettle shine slightly. “I think there’s one of those invisible entrances there,” she commented.

Ethan looked over at where she was looking at and nodded. “Oh yeah,” He agreed. “I see another one behind that wire fence.” He pointed to a walled off area and Colene could faintly make out the same shine. “I’ll take that one,” he explained. “You take the one you saw?”

She nodded in confirmation. “I’ll see you later then,” She chuckled, giving him a mock salute. He half grinned back at her, giving her a nervous pat on the back as he walked towards the fenced off kettle.

Colene took a moment to calm her nerves, walking slowly towards the invisible kettle. “You alright, agent 5?” Callie asked gently.

They had come to an agreement that the two pop stars would help both individually. Marie was helping out Ethan while Callie was the one talking to her.

“Yeah, I’m alright,” She replied quietly. “Just nervous, y’know?”

“I get you,” Callie comforted. “I was nervous too my first time going into a kettle. Just remember I’m here to help!”

The words were actually somewhat helpful in calming her down and even made her feel slightly confident. With a few flings of her brush, the entrance became visible and opened up. Smiling to herself, she shifted into a squid and jumped down.

Page break

It felt she was falling for a short amount of time before she felt herself land on solid ground. Colene quickly shifted back to an inkling and looked around. The ground seemed to be floating over nothing. Which was strange enough until she noticed that the ‘sky’ surrounding her was just a bunch of screens.

“Wow this place is strange,” she muttered under her breath. There was a bunch of bright blue ink in front of her leading to a launchpad. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that her tentacles had turned blue.

“Swim through that ink to the portal!” Callie instructed. “It will allow you to superjump to the next area. The octarians love things float. I honestly don’t know how they do it!”

“Right,” she replied quietly, dipping into the ink and swimming through to the launchpad without thinking. Super jumping was as close as squids can get to flying and she found it thrilling. As the air rushed past her as she jumped, she remembered fondly all the times Ethan and the others had called her a ‘thrill seeker’ – Ethan had always said it when scolding her though for being rash. She wasn’t sure whether she agreed with it or not.

The landing came as a slight shock. The checkpoint beneath her sparked into life as she landed. In front of her was more ink but this time it was a dark purple. She could make an odd moving shape beyond a small wall. Colene ran forwards with the herobrush t her feet, making a thin path to the wall.

“Careful, there’s an octotrooper on the other side of that wall!” Callie informed her. “Shouldn’t be too tough, just a few flicks from that brush of yours should do it. Just be careful of ink bullets!”

“Got it,” Colene replied bluntly, running out from behind the wall. The octarian whirled around to face at her firing a single shot of purple ink. She moved past it easily and took the octarian out with just two flicks of the brush.

“Good job agent 5!” Callie praised. “You’re a natural at this! Continue like this and this’ll be a breeze!”

Colene smiled to herself but gave no reply simply moving past where the octotrooper was. She swam down a narrow path that went down slightly. It lead to an area with another octarian except this time it had a shield in front of it.

“The shielded ones are a little trickier. You’ll need to find a way to sneak around the back of them,” Callie explained. “Maybe use a bomb to distract it?”  
She ducked behind a wall, dodging an ink bullet. She peeked out from behind the wall to see if the octotrooper had lost interest. When it had, she pulled out a splat bomb and threw it past the octarian. It swiveled around to look at it and at the same time Colene dispatched it with two flicks.

“Smooth moves, agent 5,” Callie praised excitedly as a Launchpad appeared. “Launchpad time! Let’s continue!”

Page break (You know how the mission goes)

Colene eventually returned to Octo valley, zapfish in her arms. She winced slightly as her eyes adjusted to the sudden increase in light. She could faintly hear footsteps running towards her and looked up expecting to see Ethan. She jumped slightly at Callie standing right in front of her with a huge grin on her face. “Welcome back, agent 5!”

“Uh, hi, Callie,” Colene greeted slowly, taken back slightly by how cheerful Callie was all the time. Callie’s grin seemed to grow – if that was at all possible – and she motioned for her to follow as she turned to walk towards cuttlefish cabin.

“You did really well on your first mission,” Callie rambled as they walked the short distance. “Agent 6 did really well too. He hasn't quite come back yet but he's almost there! If we continue like this then this will be done in no time at all!”

Colene smiled at the girl and nodded, unsure what to say as they entered the cabin. Marie sat in a corner watching a small screen and saying something through a mouthpiece every now and again. She assumed she was talking to Ethan.

Callie took the zapfish off of her and walked off somewhere after playfully showing it to Marie with a false smug smile. Marie responded by sticking out her toungue briefly before diverting her attention back to the screen.

Colene stifled a laugh at the interaction as she sat awkwardly in the corner, taking her headset off and began idly playing with a tentacle.

“Break that shield and grab that zapfish!” Marie said before putting the mouthpiece and screen down. She waved at her as she stood up. “Hi,” Colene greeted, still slightly nervous in their presence.

“Hey,” Marie greeted back, an amused smile on her face. “Your mission go alright?”

Colene nodded. “Yeah, had a little trouble with the shielded octotroopers, but…”

Marie gave her a sympathetic look. “You can take the agent gear off now if you so wish,” she told her. “We’ll continue tomorrow.” She glanced out the window. “Looks like your friend’s come back, I’ll be back in a moment.” Without another word, Marie exited the cabin.

Colene watched through the window as Marie simply stood outside the cabin, holding her umbrella. Ethan walked up to her rather nervously, handing over the zapfish he’d rescued. She heard muffled words but couldn’t hear what they were saying.

She whirled around at footsteps. Callie had reentered the room holding two cups and was walking towards her. “Want some tea?” She offered, holding a cup towards her. Colene smiled politely and took the cup gratefully. “So,uh,”the pop star started before being interrupted by Marie entering with Ethan.

Colene waved at Ethan quietly with a small smile on her face. He moved to stand next to her with a small hello.

“So, tell us about yourselves!” Callie continued. “I wanna know exactly what kind of people we’re working with.”  
Page break

“You met Callie and Marie?”

Colene winced slightly at the volume of her friend’s voice. Laurelle took a while to get used to but she was sweet and caring when you got beyond how excitable she tended to get. “Yes, Laurie,” she said for what felt like the millionth time that afternoon. She took a small sip of her drink.

Laurelle – or Laurie as she had taken to call her – grinned at her. “And they made you and Eth agents to fight back the octarians?” She asked again.

“Yes,” Colene repeated with a groan. “We’ve been other this, what, a thousand times by now?”

“Sorry, it’s just taking me a while to get my head around this,” her friend apologized sheepishly. Colene just smiled and patted her hand comfortingly.

With a sigh she leaned back and looked at her surroundings. Laurelle’s house was very different from her own small messy apartment. In their small group of friends, it was known that Laurelle came from a rather rich family and had been given a decently sized house to live in when she moved out to live on her own. Laurelle had fount it too big for just her though and eventually began looking for roommates. Colene herself had been asked – and she had been tempted as it would solve several issues at her own apartment – but she had declined the offer. She enjoyed her solitude a lot of the time.

And, well, Laurie could be a bit overbearing at times.

Laurie had been good about it though and perfectly understood. It hadn’t taken much longer for her to find a roommate – a male inkling named Tate.

“So, how’s Tate?” Colene asked, changing the subject abruptly. “Is he around?”

Laurie shook her head, adjusting a tentacle that was tied up in a bun. “I think he went out a little while ago to do some turf wars or something,” she explained idly. “I didn’t quite catch what he said when he left.”

Colene thought over it for a bit, fiddling with her glass. She opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by the door opening. She and Laurie turned to see Tate himself walk through the door, clutching his classic squiffer in his hand.

“Speak of the devil,” she joked to her friend. Laurie laughed quietly and waved a hello as her roommate began walking towards them.

“Devil? Me?” Tate said with false hurt in his voice. He put a hand to his chest and faked stumbling back in shock. Colene rolled her eyes while her friend laughed. “I think you mean saint, Colene.”  
“No, I definitely meant devil,” Colene teased, moving up further on the sofa to allow him to sit down.

“You wound me, Colene,” Tate sighed as he sat down. “So, what have I missed while I was out?”

“Colene met the squid sisters!” Laurie burst out excitedly. “And she and Ethan were made agents to fight against the octarians!”

“Whoa, slow down there,” Tate chuckled and turned to face Colene. “First of all…you met the squid sisters?”

“Yep,” she answered. “It was…odd. I think Ethan enjoyed meeting them more than I did. He’s the bigger squid sisters’ fan after all!”

Laurie and Tate nodded. “You’ve always had a preference for Off the Hook, right?” Laurie asked her and she nodded. “I’m pretty neutral on the subject, I suppose. Both groups are good in my humble opinion.”

“I’m not gonna take part in this debate,” Tate piped up. “As Laurie said, both are good. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?”

“You’re no fun,” Colene whined. “But okay we’ll leave it be.”

“Thank you,” he said gratefully. “Okay, second question about what I’ve been told…what the squid are octarians?”

“Not entirely sure,” She admitted. “I think they’re what the octarians evolved into. They’re really weird! The ones I saw were just tentacles with legs in machines that fire ink.”

“That sounds…slightly gross,” Laurie muttered with a grimace.

Colene nodded at her. “They were a little gross,” she agreed and glanced at the clock. She sighed. “It’s getting late, I should head home now.”

“Really? You’re sure you don’t want to stay for a night?” Laurie offered.

She shook her head. “It’s fine Laurie. I need to clean up a little anyway,” she joked lightly. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Promise?” Laurie asked childishly.

“Yeah, I promise,” she sighed, rolling her eyes. She placed her glass down and stood up. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

Page break

Colene always loved Inkopolis Square at night. There were very little inklings out at this time and she just enjoyed how it looked with all the lights on. It allowed her some time to think in peace and quiet as she made the short walk home.

She took the time to think over all that had happened that day. She and Ethan had seen Marie from the Squid Sisters in the square. They had followed her down a pipe and found themselves in a place called Octo Valley. Marie and her cousin Callie had made both of them agents and they found and entered ‘kettles’ to retrieve zapfish.

It was…a lot to take in but she’d probably get used to it over time. It was pretty clear she and Ethan were in this for the long haul – AKA until the great zapfish has been recovered.

Colene was broken out of her thoughts by the sound of something crashing in an alley near her. She whirled around at the noise with a quiet yelp. She was about to dismiss it as nothing – may have been L’il Judd messing around – when she thought she saw something run down the alley.

Something humanoid.

Curiosity got the better of her as she walked towards the alleyway. However, when she got there, there was nothing there, just a knocked over trashcan.

Odd, she thought to herself but shrugged it off as her imagination and walked away.

Page break

The octoling internally sighed in relief as the inkling turned and left. One of the underlings had knocked over a metal cylinder as they had followed her, and another may have been seen as they ran after them.

She just had to be thankful that the inkling left – hopefully without seeing them.

Emerging from their hiding place in a corner, the light from a nearby lamp gleamed off of her black tentacles as she looked around.

“What now, commander?” an underling asked nervously.

“We make our way to the target destination,” the commander octoling said bluntly. “Without anymore interruptions!” She turned to face the small group of underlings behind her. Even with the glasses on they could feel her glaring at them.

“Let’s go,” she ordered, walking with purpose down the alley.

They had a mission to do, and she’d make sure it went off without a hitch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: I fixed a slight error where it said Ethan had come back already when he hadn't. Always proof read properly folks!
> 
> Ok, so i need to know something:
> 
> Would you guys rather me describe the entire mission or just part of it?
> 
> I've only put in part of the mission on this chaopter but I wanna know if doing it like that's okay with you guys or not!
> 
> Also, yeah, next chapter will have some slight deviation from the mission structure. Is that exciting? Idk


	3. First encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Colene fights the octolings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me about time to update, right?

“Agent 5, agent 5!”

 

Colene lifted her head up groggily at the sound of a voice from who knows where. “What? Who’s agent 5?” she asked herself, still half asleep.

 

“You are, silly! Oh…did I wake you up?”

 

The events of the previous day came back to her in a flash. She nodded to herself silently, fumbling around for her headset on the bedside table. She heard various objects hitting the ground – she winced slightly at the sound of glass shattering – but eventually found the headset and clipped it on.

 

“Right, sorry, I’m here,” she muttered. “What’s happened to make you call me at night?”

 

“Sorry about that!” Callie apologized quickly from the other end. “We have a bit of a sudden situation. There’s been a rumored octoling sighting at the Kelp dome.”

 

“Octoling?”

 

“Basically the octarian variant of us inklings,” Callie explained quickly. “Listen, we need you to come down to the kelp dome. Marie’s tried to contact agent 6 but there’s been so success so far.”

 

“Won’t it be closed at this time?” Colene sighed.

 

“Don’t worry about that,” Callie dismissed cheerily. “We got it all covered.”

 

Colene sighed in defeat forcing herself to stand. “Alright, gimme a bit and I’ll be down there.”

 

“Great!” Callie sounded slightly distracted. “I’ll see you down there!”

 

* * *

 

Colene usually found Inkopolis quite calming at night with how emptythe streets were, but the knowledge that octarians had managed to sneak in and break into an area. Even more terrifying to her was the fact that these octarians were much like her and more than just a living tentacle on a machine.

 

She suppressed a shiver as three figures came into view. She recognized two as Callie and Marie but not the other. It was an inkling with tan skin and had long slightly square tentacles.

 

“Agent 5!” Callie called out, waving at her.

 

“H-hey,” Colene greeted slowly as she jogged over to greet them.

 

Marie turned around and gave her a small, grateful smile. “Agent 5, thank you for coming,” she greeted formally. “This is Roxy, she can get you into the kelp dome.”

 

She nodded and waved at Roxy awkwardly who nodded back. “So what do I need to do?” she asked, remembering she was there for a reason.

 

“Well, we don’t know if they have any zapfish on them so the current objective is simply drive them out of here and back to Octo Canyon,” Marie explained briefly as Roxy began to unlock the door.

 

Colene nodded, her fear being replaced by a determination to succeed in her mission. “Anything else I should know?” she asked as Roxy unlocked the entrance.

 

“Callie already told you that octolings are essentially the octarian’s equivalent to us inklings,” Marie muttered. “Just…be careful. Octolings can be tricky to catch at times and love throwing splat bombs”

 

“Best of luck in there, kid,” Roxy called over to her as the door clicked open. The inkling pulled it open for her. “I feel like you’re going to need it.”

 

* * *

 

 

The inside of the kelp dome was dark, the only light coming from the moon and a few lamps they had switched on. Not many lamps were turned on so that they didn’t attract unnecessary attention. The atmosphere felt heavy and unnerving as Colene walked forwards with her herobrush clutched tightly in her hands.

 

The ground was covered in the dark purple ink of the octarians but there seemed to be no octolings in sight. She stopped at the edge of the ink as she stared around. In Octo Canyon there were only small puddles of purple ink every now and again – mostly because the octotroopers didn’t need loads on the ground – but now…

 

She couldn’t see the floor anymore. Apart from the grates and walls, the kelp dome had been turned into a sea of purple ink. The octolings could be anywhere in here and she didn’t know ho many there were.

 

Cautiously she tapped on her headset. “Um, we may have a bit of an issue,” she said quietly.

 

“What’s wrong? They are still there, aren’t they?” Callie asked in concern.

 

“They are but…” Colene paused to think over her words. “There’s so much ink on the ground and I can’t see where they’re hiding…”

 

She heard Callie mumble something unhappily and a quiet call for Marie. She heard the faint click and buzz of something switching on.

 

There was a moment of silence. Callie broke the silence.

 

“Carp,” Callie muttered in frustration. “That’s a lot of ink on the ground for how short of a time they’ve been here! That must mean there’s quite a few octolings hiding in there.” Callie paused and Colene heard her mumbling frantically to Marie. “Look, just stick to the plan. Flush those octolings out of there and back home. Be sure to ink everywhere though to avoid any ambushes!”

 

“Understood,” Colene replied before switching the headset off. Hesitantly she placed a foot onto the ink, wincing slightly at the sting. With a few flicks of her brush she began to cover up the octoling ink. He began working methodically, not leaving any purple ink on the ground.

 

Then she saw what looked like movement in the ink.

 

She paused in her actions; her attention now on what could be a hiding octoling. “I see you,” she muttered, pulling out a splat bomb and throwing in that direction.

 

There was a squawk of protest and a shape leaped out of the ink and morphed into a humanoid.

 

The octoling turned to look at her through their sunglasses. The octoling was holding what looked a bit like a splattershot. The octoling stared at her for a moment before saying something in a strange language and lunging towards her.

 

Colene cried out and leaped to the side to dodge a splat bomb. She hissed as the edge of the blast hit her, causing her to crash onto the ground. She stood up quickly, whirling around to face the octoling-

 

And dodged to the side again to avoid ink fired from the octoling’s gun.

 

“Holy carp,” she muttered to herself as she dodged another splat bomb. “Get yourself back into the game, Colene.”

 

Turning around she rolled a splat bomb in the octoling’s direction. The tooling squawked as they barely dodged it. Half the octoling had gone yellow from the ink.

 

Colene took the opportunity to run over and finished the octoling off with a flick of her brush. The octoling squawked as it vanished. A small octopus ghost drifted up and away to who knows where.

 

She paused to watch it fly away. That was more difficult than she had expected and she still had no idea how many there were and why they were here.

 

* * *

 

 

Colene continued to cover ink and fight off the octolings that revealed themselves. They were using a surprising variety of weapons. Some used guns like the first one while others were using rollers and another had used a blaster. She idly wondered where they had gotten their weapons but was distracted by another octoling emerging.

 

This one was slightly different than the others. Rather than red tentacles, its tentacles were black and long strands of kelp were attached to her sunglasses. This one was using a slosher and was currently trying to fling ink at them.

 

Colene noticed that this octoling seemed to have better aim than the red ones as they got a direct hit on them. She cried out in pain and ducked into her ink to get it off. She frantically swam a small distance away and narrowly dodged another attack. Emerging from her ink she faced the octoling who had paused to pull out a bomb and throw it.

 

A circle appeared as the bomb landed telling her that it was an autobomb rather than a splat bomb.

 

In a panic, Colene rolled a splat bomb towards the octoling as she ran forwards and away from the chasing autobomb. The octoling seemed to panic, turning into an octopus and swimming away. A new determination washed over Colene and she chased after the fleeing octarian.

 

A second octoling dropped down from a wall, forcing her to stop. The octoling raised her gun but didn’t fire. Colene silently questioned why but raised her brush anyway.

 

The sound of the autobomb coming to a stop next to her gave her an answer.

 

Realizing she wouldn’t be able to escape, she sucked in her breath as the autobomb blew up. She cried out in pain as she vanished and drifted off towards the nearest spawn pad.

 

Once respawned, Colene took a second to reorient herself before running back to where she had just been. The octoling that had forced her to stop was still there and had already seen her. The red light coming from the sunglasses hurt her eyes but she stared back anyway.

 

The octoling moved first, running towards her while firing her gun in front of her. Colene ran to the side, catching the octoling by surprise and getting rid of it quickly.

 

Taking a moment to catch her breath, she caught sight of the black haired one standing in the centre. It walked to the edge of the central platform and seemed to smirk at her tauntingly.

 

Rage boiled in Colene’s vains as she ran towards the octoling. Once the wall had been inked, the climbed up rapidly towards the inkling. Another autobomb flew towards her as she reached the top but this time she was able to dodge in time. Colene flung herself towards the octoling. She noticed idly that the octoling seemed somewhat surprised by the action. It was that surprise that gave her the opportunity to take it out.

 

As the octoling vanished, she let out a sigh of relief. She heard various sounds as more octolings revealed themselves. Colene steeled herself for a fight but they just seemed to stare at where the black tentacle octoling was and then to her.

 

Then turned and ran.

 

She followed after them a little bit and watched as they fled out of a door that was broken open.

 

* * *

 

 

It took a while for her to respawn but Absinthe eventually found herself back at Cephalon HQ. Various underlings that had also been taken out looked over at her appearance. They looked afraid of something – possibly of her being angry.

 

“What are you all looking at me like that for?” she snapped tiredly. They visibly flinched and backed further away. She sighed in regret. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting to be here,” she apologized. “If it wasn’t for that-“

 

“Wasn’t for what, Absinthe?” A cold voice asked from the corner.

 

Absinthe gulped, her attention snapping to the figure she didn’t see in the corner.

 

A tall octoling walked out of the shadows. The purple tips of her tentacles and height setting her apart from the rest of them.

 

An elite commander – rare octolings that ranked even higher than the elites like herself.

 

“Answer the question, _elite_ ,” the commander hissed quietly.

 

“T-there’s a new agent,” Absinthe said quickly. “They forced us out of Inkopolis.”

 

The commander snorted in disbelief. “So there’s a new agent,” she said scornfully. “Big deal! You’re an elite, Absinthe. An _elite_ should be better than some pathetic agent!”

 

Absinthe recoiled but didn’t argue back. “Yes, ma’am,” she replied monotonously.

 

The commander nodded at her before walking off without a word. Her departure seemed to lift the heavy atmosphere that had settled in the room.

 

Absinthe sighed heavily, refusing to make eye contact with the other octolings.

 

She had to up her game and that meant she needed to take down that inkling.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was fun to write.
> 
> I want the octoling missions to be different from collect the zapfish in this so instead it's simply get them out of Inkopolis.
> 
> At this point the plot's kinda starting.
> 
> Yes the love interest has been introduced - guess which one it is ;)
> 
> Please leave feedback/kudos if possible!


	4. IMPORTANT NOTE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just an update but a kind of important one

This will be deleted later but I thought I'd notify you all that this story is going in a bit of a different direction than originally planned. I'm gonna keep details minimal but essentially the original plan was that Colene would continue as an agent while trying to hide a secret relationship with an octoling but I've kinda decided to change how it goes forward.

The summary has been updated to give an idea on where it's going now. If you wanna stick with this, then thank you. If not, that's cool.

As soon as the next chapter is posted then I will delete this note.


	5. Second encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Straight off the back of one octoling attack, another - much larger - one occurs and Colene's the only agent available.
> 
> It starts off well then all goes to shit.

The octoling encounter left Colene slightly shaken and more than a little exhausted.

 

As she jumped up out of the sewer into Octo Canyon, she was greeted by Callie. She was a cheerful as always but it didn’t take long to notice that Marie wasn’t there.

 

Odd. She was told Marie rarely left Octo Canyon.

 

“Hey Agent 5!” Callie greeted enthusiastically. “Great work last night with those octolings! Sorry we woke you up so late.”

 

Colene waved it off quickly. “It’s no problem really.” She nearly collapsed down next to Callie, already practically asleep.”Cod I’m exhausted though,” she complained loudly.

 

Callie gave her a rather sheepish look of apology. “Yeah, with this kinda job you have to be ready for anything to happen at any time.”

 

They were interrupted by the sound of someone coming through the grate. They turned to look, expecting it to be Marie.

 

Instead they found a furious Marina staring Callie down.

 

Colene heard the former idol gulp loudly beside her. “H-hi Marina, how’s it going?” she greeted, her voice was uncharacteristically shaky.

 

Something was off here.

 

Colene watched as Marina stalked across the ground to tower over the both of them, glowering down at Callie who seemed to shrink into herself a little.

 

Colene remembered when Off the Hook first became popular. Everyone had known something was...different about Marina. She looked, spoke and acted nothing like other octolings. She sung in some strange foreign language and there had been reports of her muttering to herself in that same language. She had an almost obsession with machinery - a trait possessed by very few inklings - and was known for not really being very social. She only ever hung out with Pearl, Callie and Marie.

 

They had all dismissed it saying she was just a ‘strange inkling’ but who cares when they were making some of the biggest hit songs of the year and performed live every month at splatfests? It hadn’t crossed their minds to think of the possibility that Marina wasn’t an inkling.

 

After all, octarians were just a thing casually mentioned at school then dismissed as being fictional.

There was no way Marina - one half of Off the Hook and an idol of Inkopolis City - was an octarian, right? To most of the city, they didn’t exist. Just the ramblings of crazy old men.

 

Colene was tempted to hit herself in frustration for not realising sooner.

 

Not that it mattered right now. Currently Marina was still staring daggers at her friend.

 

“Where is she?” Marina demanded furiously.

 

_Who was ‘_ she _’?_ Colene thought to herself.

 

“She’s still out with the captain,” Callie explained quickly. “They’ll return...eventually!”

 

“ _Eventually_?” Marina yelled in disbelief. Colene, getting a sudden burst of energy, scrambled to her feet and stepped away from the enraged octoling. “Eventually isn’t good enough!”

 

Callie looked after her desperately for help. “I don’t know when the captain will return,” she admitted quietly. “I’m sorry i wish I had more information. I’m confident Nanami will be absolutely fine though.”

 

_Who was Nanami?_

 

“But how do we _know_?” The octoling sighed, rage dissipating slightly. She leaned back against the wall beside Callie. The shorter girl was quick to place a hand on their arm in an attempt to comfort her. “I...I just want her home. It’s been months since I’ve seen her.”

 

“The girl’s 17 Marina and has fully adjusted to Inkopolis,” Callie comforted gently. “She wants to be more independent and not feel as ‘babied’ anymore. She enjoys her agent work, it gives her something to do.”

 

Marina nodded in understanding. “I know, I know,” she muttered. “And I won’t stop her from doing agent work or whatever she’s doing as long as it’s within reason.”

 

“Within reason?”

 

“If I find out she’s doing something shady or anything like that,” she explains quickly.

 

Callie nodded in understanding. “Understandable.”

 

“She’s just been gone for so much longer than usual and...a mother worries, you know?”

 

“I understand,” Callie sympathised, rubbing her friend’s back gently. “Nanami can take care of herself. She’s a tough cookie!”

Marina smiled and tried to stifle her laughter. “That’s an understatement.”

 

Colene smiled awkwardly. “Uh, sorry to interrupt but...what’s going on?” she butted in.

 

The two idols looked over at her as if just realising she was there. “Oh, Agent 5! Sorry I got distracted,” Callie apologised quickly.

 

Marina tilted her head curiously, staring evenly at her. It made her feel slightly uncomfortable. “Agent 5, huh? What’s happened this time?”

 

Callie was about to explain but was cut off by a small ding from her phone, signifying that she had received a text. There was a pause as she read the text.

 

“Fuck,” Callie mumbled under her breath. “That’s not good.”

 

“Callie, what’s happened?” Colene asked. She had a bad feeling about this. Callie was unusually serious. As she looked up from her phone, the rather panicked look on her face confirmed it. “It’s not good is it?”

 

Callie shook her head with a frown. “Roxy’s spotted a large group of octolings heading towards the Manta Maria,” she explained quickly.

 

“Octolings?” Colene and Marina yelled in sync.

 

“And to make matters worse, she says they were being lead by an octoling ‘with a strange haircut’,” Callie continued, getting more panicked by the second.

 

“A...strange haircut?” Marina asked quietly. Her voice had started to tremble slightly.

 

Colene looked back at Callie. “What do we do?”

 

“Marie and Agent 6 are out dealing with...more octolings…” Callie’s voice slowed as she explained as she realised. “They were a distraction. Of course, they were a distraction.”

 

“Then we have an advantage,” Colene pointed out. Both Callie and Marina looked at her questioningly. She grinned at them, full of confidence.

 

“We still have an agent that can go kick their butts out of Inkopolis - me.”

 

* * *

 

 

Just like last night, the ground was a sea of purple ink. She couldn’t see where any of the octolings could be. Every now and again she thought she saw ripples but every time she glanced back they were gone.

 

“Agent 5? Are you ok?” Callie asked through her headset. “It’s ok if you want to retreat.”

 

Colene shook her head stubbornly. “No, we have to do this,” she pointed out. “I can’t retreat until we get these guys out of here.”

 

There was silence from Callie.

 

“Do we have any idea how many there are?” she asked hopefully.

 

“No, I was just told that it was a much larger group than usual with quite a few elites,” Callie recalled.

 

Colene sighed. “And the one with the weird haircut.”

 

“Yep…”

 

“Well, better get started. Wish me luck!”

 

“Good luck Colene!”

 

As the conversation ended, Colene took a moment to close her eyes, breathe in and collect herself. She held her brush tighter in her hands.

 

_Let’s go_.

 

She launched herself into a sprint, creating a trail of green ink behind her. She didn’t get far before being met by a pair of octolings, one with red hair and the other with black hair and kelp. She leaped to the side as a pair of splat bombs rolled towards her, hissing as she got hit by the edge of the blast.

 

She turned around and began waving her brush at them, trying to kill them before they could fire at her. She succeeded in splatting the red haired octoling but the elite was quick to duck away from her attack and begin firing her octoshot at her.

 

Colene ducked into her ink, swimming backwards a little to wait for her ink tank to refill. She waited and watched as the octoling looked around for a second before walking past the puddle she was hiding in. Once the ctoling’s back was to her, she took the opportunity to jump out and splatted her with a few swipes of her brush. The octoling didn’t even have time to turn around.

Colene took a second to get her breath back. Two octolings down...cod knows how many to go.

 

She was disturbed by three more octolings emerging from the ink on the ledges in front of her, two were holding octoshots but an elite was holding a blaster and glaring at her.

 

“Oh shit,” Colene mumbled under her breath, holding her brush in a battle stance. Two of the three octolings jumped down and ran towards her at full speed.

 

_Here we go again_.

 

* * *

 

 

Colene had lost count of how many octolings she had fought at this point.

 

Her body felt like it was burning and she was breathing heavily at this point. Most of the area had been cleared of octolings and their ink, hopefully meaning she was almost done. Another flick of her brush and one more elite vanished in an explosion of green ink. Thankfully no more seemed to be around or at least not appearing immediately.

 

Colene took the moment to take a breather, almost collapsing on the ground.

 

“Impressive, I never expected some inkling to be able to fight off so many octolings at once.”

 

Colene whirled around, searching for who spoke. “Where are you?”

 

They laughed. “Why don’t you figure it out, squidkid?”

 

She clenched her fists and forced herself to stand. “This isn’t funny,” she called out indignantly.

 

“On the contrary, you inklings are hilarious to me.”

 

Colen looked above her and met the stare of an octoling. There was something odd about them but she couldn’t see what it was through the grate. “An octoling soldier who speaks inkling,” she commented dryly. “Why’s that then?”

 

The octoling smirked at her. “That’s classified information,” she chirped as she stood up fully and stretched. “Can’t tell you, sorry.”

 

This octoling frustrated her to no end, Colene decided. Covering the mast with ink, she swam up to join them. They seemed mostly amused by the move but made no action to run away.

 

“Wannabe agent wants to play, huh?” She teased, swing her weapon around confidently. A brella.

 

Now that she could see her properly, Colene noticed what was odd about the octoling. Her black tentacles were longer than the others with purple tips and she was tall. _Really_ tall.

 

Colene swallowed her nerves. “If by play you mean kick your butt out of inkopolis, then yes.”

 

The octoling laughed in her face, smirk growing bigger. “I’d like to see you try.”

 

Colene growled in frustration, launching herself at the octoling. She was hoping to take them by surprise but they only grinned confidently and stepped to the side, watching them fall onto the grating.

 

“Is that really the best you can do, little wannabe agent?” they teased coldly as she approached slowly, aiming the open brella at her face. “I’m disappointed, I expected more.”

 

She scrambled back to her feet and tried to attack her again, only to be knocked back by the brella travelling towards her. She ducked back down beneath the grating, narrowly avoiding a blast of ink from the main weapon.

 

Colene looked back up and met the octoling’s gaze again before climbing back up. She attacked again before the brella could return. They dodged once more but she was finally able to land a hit causing them to hiss in pain.

 

The octoling looked up at her again, smirk turning into a sneer. The cocky attitude seemed to vanish as she reassessed her situation. Colene could hear her mumbling something in another language as she walked away from her.

 

The way she walked with slow, deliberate steps and never looking away...confused her. She wasn’t retreating out of fear or wariness, it was more like she was trying to figure something out. Colene was hesitant to follow her but also worried what would happen if she got too far away.

 

She chose to follow at a distance, eventually coming off of the grating and onto more solid ground.

 

A mistake.

 

As soon as she was off the grating, the octoling sprinted towards and past her, shooting her in the back before she could react. Colene cried out in pain and fell onto her knees.

 

She looked up and watched the octoling circle her like a predator deciding when to strike. With a small grunt, she began to get up only to be knocked back down swiftly. The sudden movement caused her to drop her herobrush. Eyes widening, she tried to reach for it but was stopped by the octoling placing a foot in front of her hand.

 

“You’re persistent, I’ll give you that,” she conceded reluctantly, leaning down until her face was near hers. “But it won’t be enough.”

 

Colene opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by the octoling grabbing her by the front of her jacket and lifting her up effortlessly, walking towards the edge. She began to flail and panic as she tried to get out of their grip.

 

A flailing hand somehow made contact with their face causing them to drop her unceremoniously.

 

There was a clatter of something landing on the ground.

 

Colene struggled back onto her feet, legs shaking heavily from the strain. She was exhausted and in pain but she wasn’t going to let this octoling stomp over her without a good fight.

 

Much to her shock, however, they weren’t focused on her anymore. She was groaning slightly and holding her head in her hands, stumbling around slightly. She looked up at her slowly revealing bright purple eyes.

 

_Wait, wasn’t she wearing shades? Where did they go?_

 

As they stepped towards her she instinctively stepped backwards.

 

And fell.

 

There was a sickening feeling of shock as the ground vanished beneath her.

 

Then her head hit something solid and everything went black.

 

* * *

 

 

_What the fuck is happening?_

 

Layla’s mind was a blur. She could barely make sense of anything. She had been fighting an inkling it seemed...but why? There were a pair of shades on the ground, red light shining up at her. They were more than a little tempting...she reached to pick them up.

 

_The inkling!_

The inkling had fallen off the edge, she remembered suddenly. She stood back up and hurried over to look over the edge. The inkling was lying unconscious on the ground, green hair stained slightly with blue blood and the headpiece was broken. There was a platform beneath where they had fallen from. She must have hit her head on the way down.

 

Guilt rushed up within her. This was her fault...

 

“Commander?”

 

Layla squeaked slightly in surprise as a pair of elites snuck up on her. She took a moment to breathe and cool herself. They were expecting the calm and collected commander not the fumbling mess she was now. she turned her head to the side slightly, not showing that her shades had fallen off.

 

“What is it?” she snapped sharply.

 

“We’ve got what we came for,” one elite informed her monotonously.

 

“Right, good,” Layla nodded quickly. “We’ll return to base then. I’m just going to finish off something.”

 

The elites looked at each other before nodding and left swiftly.

 

She turned back to the inkling, jumping down to stand next to her unconscious body. She was resolute in her decision to help them but couldn’t do it here.

 

She’d have to bring the inkling back with her.

 

The question was how was she going to do that?

 

As if on cue, they began to stir as they came back around. She stared up at her blearily, not quite understanding was happening. “Wha-?” The agent mumbled groggily. “What’s happening?”

 

Layla shushed her quickly. “I need you to turn into a squid,” she instructed hurriedly.

 

The inkling scrunched her nose in confusion.

 

It was a little cute, she’d admit.

 

“No questions, just do it,” Layla hissed quickly. “ _Now_.”

 

It was clear the girl was still confused but obeyed anyway, shifting into a small green squid. Satisfied, Layla pulled her ink tank off her back and emptied it before carefully placing them inside.

 

She could hear other octolings approach as she hastily made her way back up, picking up the shades on the way.

 

“Are you ready to leave, commander?”

 

“Yes,” she replied curtly, motioning for them to begin moving.

 

“Where are your shades?” One particularly brave octoling asked curiously.

 

She stared at them evenly for a second before walking after the other soldiers, holding up the fallen sunglasses as she passed. “Right here, not that it’s a concern of yours.”

 

There was silence for the rest of the journey home. She was grateful for it. Less chance of people catching onto her internal panic.

 

She was bringing an inkling - the enemy - back to their base.

 

This was not how a commander was expected to behave.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally the plot begins properly!
> 
> Sorry for not updating in so long, I've been really busy with stuff like college and haven't had inspiration for this fic in a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> A few notes:
> 
> \- Please try and leave feedback,it encourages me to write more :)  
> -My writing isn't the best but i'm trying to improve!  
> \- Pearl and Marina may become agents 5 and 6 in the Octo expansion but i'm not sure so i made these two lovely characters of mine agents 5 and 6 for the purpose of this story  
> \- there will be an inkling/octoling couple in this story. You just need to give me a while to get to it.  
> \- I apologise if any of the not OC characters are OOC. I'm gonna try and improve
> 
> I'm bad at character description so here's a basic overview of Colene's and Ethan's appearances
> 
> Colene: inkling girl, light blue hair, purple eyes, she has that hairstyle with the long tentacle at one side  
> Ethan, inkling boy, orange hair, brown eyes, kinda similar hairstyle in a way - the one that's more on one side than the other


End file.
